Cherie Priest : Boneshaker
I don't think I've really wanted to like a book so much before reading it for years - Boneshaker is the first Cherie Priest novel I've read, and I love the steampunk idea, plus she's one of the seattle crew - which includes Richelle Mead. Richelle M does the fantastic Succubus series, among other things, and I like Caitlin Kittredge's books almost as much as I like her attitude.
Thankfully, it is a good book; not very very good, but refreshing and different and full of fun. The plot is tweaked once or twice to bring more steampunk in, but it works, and it all makes more sense than a lot of steampunk - i.e. it's not full of machines that are as totally economically non-sensical as they are in that awful novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (the only thing WG has touched that I don't love). The story arc, the history in it, is actually very good too. Suspense and mystery. Plus it's all held together by some very nice writing, and it's full of fantastic ideas and machines and outfits.
So it's a 9/10, probably not 10/10m because of those oddities it needs to make itself work at all, and a lot of fun.
Thankfully, it is a good book; not very very good, but refreshing and different and full of fun. The plot is tweaked once or twice to bring more steampunk in, but it works, and it all makes more sense than a lot of steampunk - i.e. it's not full of machines that are as totally economically non-sensical as they are in that awful novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (the only thing WG has touched that I don't love). The story arc, the history in it, is actually very good too. Suspense and mystery. Plus it's all held together by some very nice writing, and it's full of fantastic ideas and machines and outfits.
So it's a 9/10, probably not 10/10m because of those oddities it needs to make itself work at all, and a lot of fun.